Logging Pretrip

Panhandle: Yes you show 15 minutes when you drop the trailer and pick up another. There's a place on your inspection sheet to show each vehicle. As far as the 3 lights out after 30 years I thought I had heard it all but that's a new one. Plain and simple: If it's on the trailer it had better work!! Period. Don't know who came up with that brilliant piece of advice but they need a refresher course on the FMCSA regs or better yet a tire knocker up side their head. Now let's use a little common sense here. No one expects you climb up on trailer to replace a top light but write it on the trailer inspection. Get it fixed ASAP. Don't make this more complicated than it is OK.

 

Honestly, how long does it take you to inspect a trailer? There ain't much to it really. I can inspect everything on that trailer + connect it to the tractor in 15 minutes usually. When I run paper logs I just log the 15 minute drop/hook and write up an inspection report on it at that time. I already got flamed for saying this on this thread, but that's not a pre-trip. That's just part of picking up a trailer. You have to inspect it so you know you aren't pulling a timebomb.

As for lights, my company claims that the center marker light on the trailer which is also a turn signal on every single trailer ive ever seen, is not required to blink with your turn signals.

You're talking about a single fifteen minute entry for the drop and hook including everything involved, such as the inspection, correct?

Honestly the winter is the only time i've ever felt the need to set my trailer brakes when parked. I mean, usually i dont, but I remember vividly, one time i pulled out of a blue beacon truck wash, parked in front of it (on a very slight slope) to check my trailer and make sure they actually did a half decent job of washing it out. I was standing on the running board and felt the truck start sliding! Setting the trailer brakes stopped the slide-away.....hehe....

 

That's okay to set them for a minute or 2 for something but if you make it a habit of setting them in the winter when parked for a long period of time you will find yourself under your trailer with a torch and hammer beating the crap out of them to get them to release eventually. Good luck with that.

 

Federal Law dictates what your pretrip consists of.

No, it doesn't make sense. You took longer than 15 so you log longer than 15.

Log it as 30 minutes. If DOT says "Do a 15 minute pretrip for me." and you take 17 minutes, you are guilty of falsifying your log.

You weren't driving during that time and you weren't off duty either. Line 4, 15 minutes. If you get in an accident and the prosecution pulls your bank records, it'll show that you were buying fuel at the same time that you indicated driving the vehicle. Hello conviction.

The springs are part of the drum/shoe assembly. Both are part of the pretrip.

Yes, I am. Nothing says you have to lay down on your back and roll around in the dirt. Ever heard of kneeling? "Officer, it was really muddy and I didn't want to get dirty." Please....

 

I know you've been driving for a long time, but this is exactly the type of thing DOT will be looking at to enforce CSA2010.

 

anything that takes less than 15 min can be flagged, right??? if so how would you flag it on your log book??? wouldn't you draw a line strait down???

 

You start throwing out 15 minutes for 2 minutes and 2010 will not be a problem for you. You will be getting routed in to turn in the truck. True DOT will be cracking down more, but you have 70 to work with. You keep whittling it down like that and you might as well start with a 50 hour week.

 

Correct you are.